Cyberpunk Red

We haven’t heard much from Mike and R.Talsorian Games for years – but then they came back with The Witcher RPG. The Witcher is licence of a computer game from CD Project Red – which are programming a R.Talsorian licenced computergame at the moment.

So now Mike annoces Cyberpunk Red, tand the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit, an introductory box set for the game. And it will come soon:

The Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit will be released on August 1st at GenCon. Ideally, it will go on sale at our booth at GenCon and online via DriveThruRPG at the same time. It might also be available via our webstore then but should be available soon after if not. Cyberpunk Red will most likely be available later in the year.

R. Talsorian Homepage

Cyberpunk Red will use the classic Interlock system, but Mike claims that there will be revisions and updates. I’m a bit worried there, because The Witcher is very much a copy of the ageing Interlock we know from Cyberpunk 2020. And Mike allready told us that it will have roles, so not much change there. If they can’t even modify Interlock for a fantasy game, how much will they change for another Cyberpunk game? Probably not much more then a couple of skills. On the other hand: The Witcher’s lead designer was Mikes son, while Reds lead designer is Mike himself. Anyway, the Cyberpunk Red Jumpstart Kit will use a reduced version of the same rules. (And I heard that the quickstart rules from The Witcher are quit useable… (I could run a fight in The Witcher mostly from my Cyberpunk 2020 knowledge, because they didn’t even change the modifiers…)

The good part: it will be mostly compatible with Cyberpunk 2020 and be set in the same timeline: R. Talsorian Games and CD Projekt Red have worked together on a common timeline for the original Cyberpunk (Cyberpunk 2013) to Cyberpunk 2020 to Cyberpunk Red to Cyberpunk 2077. Cyberpunk v3 and Cybergeneration on the other hand both officially take place in alternate timelines. They are “what if?” scenarios. The Carbon Plague of Cybergeneration did occur in the 2020/Red/2077 timeline but was quickly contained. Cyberpunk Red takes place between the end of the 4th Corporate War (2022 or so) and 2077, Mike won’t tell us more there… only that it will fill the gaps betwenn 2020 and 2077, so it might be a game to explain how the world of Cyberpunk 2020 changed into the world presented in the video game.

That leaves the question of the artwork. For me, the artwork in Cyberpunk 2020 (I used the 2nd Edition with the Italian artwork) was very very important, very influencial to my playstile and one of the reasons I never liked Shadowrun much… But my trust in R. Talsorian has been shaken by Cyberpunk 3… Mike claims the artwork will up to “industry standards”, which is not much of a claim.

Still, I’m kind of excited… :)

(Source: https://rtalsoriangames.com/2019/05/30/the-cyberpunk-red-faq-as-of-5-30-19/ )

The big Cyberpunk Rulebook Give-Away

Jetzt geht es los! Das Cyberpunk 2020 Regelwerk kann jetzt gewonnen werden. Es gehört zur Neuauflage, die am 16.6. erscheint.

Es ist

  • auf deutsch
  • ein Hardcover
  • vollständig in Farbe gedruckt
  • enthält alle Änderungen und Errata
  • Morgan Blackhand’s Street Weapon Guide ist auch schon mit drin
  • 424 Seiten
  • Wert: 48,00 Euro

Und hier bei mir kannst du auch gleich einen der Lösungsbuchstaben für das Gewinnspiel erhalten. Dazu muss eine kleine Aufgabe gelöst werden.

Welcher Buchautor hat die totale Überwachung der gesamten Gesellschaft vorhergesehen, die heute zu jedem echten Cyberpunk-Szenario dazugehört?

  • Tom Clancy
  • Terry Brooks
  • George Orwell
  • J. R. R. Tolkien

Der hervorgehobene Buchstabe aus der richtigen Lösung ist der 5. Lösungsbuchstaben des Gewinnspiels.

Die anderen Lösungsbuchstaben findest du hier:

Prussian Gamer (hofrat.blogspot.com)

Cyberpunk Community

Adventure Now! (skyrock.blogg.de)

Mirrorshades (www.cyberpunk2020.eu)

Rabenwelten (rabenwelten.wordpress.com)

Wenn du das Lösungswort erraten hast, dann gehe zu
https://www.cyberpunk2020.de/en/aufloesung-gewinnspiel/

Dort findest du die richtige Emailadresse, um das Lösungwort einzuschicken. Einsendeschluss ist der 8.6.2008

 

You are being watched

The closed circuit camera in the top right corner is part of an online demostration against german laws which focus on digitally spying on its citizens – i.e. forcing the providers to hoard data like where your mobile phone logged in, what sites you surfed to, when you phoned, who you phoned, how long you phoned. It adresses my fellow Germans to protest against this spying.

NYPD: Spycopter

The New York Police Department (NYPD) got a new spying toy. A helicopter stuffed full of surveilance electronics with amazing (and frightening) capabilities:

  • looks like a civilian helicopter made by “Bell”
  • an arsenal of sophisticated surveillance and tracking equipment powerful enough to read license plates — or scan pedestrians’ faces — from high above New York
  • see-but-avoid-being-seen advantage
  • worth $10 million
  • high-powered robotic camera mounted on a turret projecting from its nose like a periscope
  • camera has infrared night-vision capabilities
  • a satellite navigation system allows police to automatically zoom in on a location by typing in the address on a computer keyboard
  • can beam live footage to police command centers or even to wireless hand-held devices

The NYPD got the expected reactions:

“From a privacy perspective, there’s always a concern that ‘New York’s Finest’ are spending millions of dollars to engage in peeping tom activities,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

And answered them the usual way:

Police insist that law-abiding New Yorkers have nothing to fear.

Yeah, right. Nothing to fear? If I want to be spied upon, I would move to North Corea. Yahoo tells us, that the NYPD plans to spend tens of millions of dollars strengthening security in the lower Manhattan business district with a network of closed-circuit television cameras and license-plate readers posted at bridges, tunnels and other entry points. We are sure they are only taping the “non-law-abiding New Yorkers”. That’s pretty much the usual stuff. The UK (who somehow misunderstood George Orwells 1984 and now seem to take it as an instruction manual) has all this. But now the Yahoo article starts to get surreal:

Police have also deployed hundreds of radiation monitors — some worn on belts like pagers, others mounted on cars and in helicopters — to detect dirty bombs.

And fantastic – did he read the R. Talsorian “Protect and Serve”?

[NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond] Kelly even envisions someday using futuristic “stationary airborne devices” similar to blimps to conduct reconnaissance and guard against chemical, biological and radiological threats.

Thanks to Don’t Tase Me, Bro! for pointing me to the Yahoo News Article. I remember a (bad) science fiction movie featuring a helicopter that could see into rooms with thermographs. Anybody remember the name?